A dozen members of the PRAS Nature Photographer’s Group met at the Venice Rookery this morning.  There seemed to be fewer birds on the Rookery then in the past.  Nesting birds included Anhingas, Great Blue Herons, and Great Egrets.  None of the nests had chicks, although several of the Great Blue Heron nests had one or two large nestlings.  We did see a Red-tailed Hawk in one of the trees near the parking area.

On the way back to Port Charlotte, several of us stopped at the Harbor Cove mobile home park in North Port.  Thanks to information provided by Bill Marr, we were able to locate about 70 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks on a small lake in the park.  Quite a sight.

Seventeen members of the PRAS traveled south to Marco Island.  Our first stop was Tigertail Beach.  We arrived around 9:00, shortly before high tide at 10:40.  Quite a number of shorebirds were observed along both sides of the lagoon.  More notable species included Short-billed Dowitchers, Kingfisher, Red Knots, Plovers (Black-bellied, Piping, Semipalmated, Wilson’s), Sanderlings, Least and Western Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones, and Lesser Yellowlegs.  A Reddish Egret put on quite a show for us.  Large numbers of Black Skimmers and Royal Terns were seen along the Gulf beach. 

After a bag lunch, we drove around some of the side streets, such as Lamplighter Court, looking for Burrowing Owls.  Although we saw a number of roped off sites, we did not see any owls.  We then continued over to Mackle Community Park, which has a sizable pond frequented by ducks.  We saw several Northern Shovelers, Mallards, Blue-winged Teal, and Lesser Scaup, along with Coots and Moorhens on the pond.  A lone Ringed Turtle Dove was observed sitting on some telephone lines several yards from a group of Eurasian-collared Doves, which afforded good views for comparison.  ltogether, the group observed close to 60 different species of birds during the trip.